Once they reached the size they are now, they've pretty much always been colored up to some degree. It kind of comes and goes throughout the day but there's usually at least a little bit of red on them. When I got them they were much smaller and I had to wait for them to grow a bit before I started seeing that bright red.

I've got a new video of the planted tank. The sunfish tank is no more. I put the longear out to pasture and changed things up in there. But, about the planted tank, I'm wondering if I have both steelcolor and spotfin shiners. The fish at 1:27 I'm sure is a spotfin shiner but then the fish at 1:37 I'm thinking is a steelcolor shiner. I've got two that I think are spotfins and three that I think are steelcolor shiners. I got them all on the exact same day at the exact same spot in what I thought was the exact same school. Both species are present in the place where I got them. Just curious what others think.

All my WC longears are on pellets now after just a few weeks. I've had a lot of success with Omega One Super Color Cichlid Pellets if anyone wants to know. I was surprised today to catch my two largest males at the front of the tank eating side by side.

Hey Caleb, thanks for sharing your tank and your seine video! I follow your channel on YouTube and your longear tanks inspired me to keep longear as well (and also because I haven't found any pumpkinseeds or orange spots locally). My tank is growing out a bit but it's heavily planted with lots of things to break up line of sight.

Thanks Tye! That's really encouraging to hear. You said that you have been looking for pumpkinseeds in your area. I think you'd have to go just a tad further north to find them. Orangespots are probably around you somewhere but I think in my Peterson's Guide it shows pumpkinseeds being up closer to Chicago and north of there. I think. Anyways, thanks for watching the videos. I appreciate the compliments.